The way of experiencing West Lake in the
13th century is distinct from that of later times. The visitors' experience
was enhanced by the annual cycle of events and by the presence of
crowds in the landscapes. The Past as Dream 夢粱錄, a memoir by Wu Zimu
吳自牧 about Hangzhou, was probably first published in 1275. Its first
six scrolls are dedicated to a series of annual activities taking
place in the Hangzhou area. West Lake does not have a separate section
in the first six chapters, but is mentioned only occasionally a location
for people to enjoy the beauty of a particular time. Events determined
the best time to enjoy the Lake. For example, in the second lunar
month, after the worship of earth and crops, the Prefect always established
a fund to improve the Lake area. Money was earmarked for repairing
bridges and mending roads in the north and south hills along the lake,
and for replanting flowers on the dikes so that people could easily
enjoy the area. (6) On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, after
burning incense and prayer papers in the Lingzhi Temple 靈芝寺 (Lingzhisi),
most people boarded decorated boats anchored in the lake alongside
the dikes, and spent the remainder of the day drinking, singing, or
just napping. (24) [table of contents of the first scrolls]
A similar appreciation of the lake is shared by Zhou Mi 周密 whose
Old Affairs of Wulin 武林舊事, published after 1279, is another wide-ranging
book about Hangzhou. In its third and tenth scrolls, a variety of
activities is once again arranged in the order of the months. Some
visitors' activities occur in Hangzhou City, some bypass the lake
and proceed to the temples in the mountains, and some are sight seeing
trips on or beside the lake. People are drawn to the lake mostly for
an annual event, a seasonal attraction or a periodic social gathering.
The sense of time-or more precisely the sense of cyclicity-is very
strong. We can even take Zhou's record of the joys of companionship
with a friend as detailed guidance on where to go and what to do in
each lunar month. For instance, mid-autumn, the ninth month, is the
time to see lotuses on the Dike of Su Shi 蘇堤 (Suti), and mid-winter,
the eleventh month, is the time to seek plum blossoms in the Isolated
Hill 孤山 (Gushan). Zhou also knows that the appearance and fun of a
place vary according to the month. The most revealing case is "South
Lake" 南湖-it is in fact the southwestern part of West Lake, located
between the Su Dike and the west shore. There are seven different
activities going on there through the whole year, including daylily
viewing in the fifth month and snow watching in the twelfth. If the
proper time is missed, a visitor can only come again in another year
for the same experience. The opportunity does not wait, because time
is unstoppable, but another opportunity is assured, because time is
cyclical. Time also determines the quality of the experience. People
may pay little attention to the lake when on an annual pilgrimage
to a temple. They may linger in a pavilion by lake for a short while
watching seasonal blossoms, or they may spend all day enjoying a wide
variety of activities on the lake. (409-411) Events, just like scenes,
are sorted out and integrated into time cycle. It thus seems fair
to say that the sense of cyclicity of time was at the core of Song
people's experiences of West Lake. [list of activities from the tenth
scroll] It is interesting to note that the tidal bore of the Qiantang
River, a famous tourist attraction in later times, was also mentioned
in Zhou's work under the eighth lunar month. Wu Zimu gave a more detailed
account of the Qiantang tidal bore in his book in the chapter on the
eighth lunar month. (27-29) Wu's and Zhou's books seem to indicate
that by no later than the thirteenth century this natural phenomenon
had become a tourist attraction.
Another element that enhanced the experience of West Lake was the
presence of crowds. Crowds formed at annual festivals or for seasonal
activities. For some occasions, the crowd spread into areas around
the lake. From the sixteenth night of the first month (shoudeng, 收燈)
to the early days of the third month (jinyan, 禁煙), people frequently
went out of the city for hiking, boating, or kite flying. On other
occasions, the crowd flooded in from the city, taking the lake as
a place to continue their festivities. Sometimes the crowd took shape
as groups of pilgrims from several areas converged, crossing the lake
as part of their pilgrimage. The crowd was too magnificent to ignore.
Zhou Mi is one of the authors obsessed with its presence. In his own
words, "The two dikes are crowded with men and women from the
capital [Hangzhou]. There is almost nowhere to stand. The surface
of the water is filled with decorated boats, lining up like fish scales.
It is almost impossible to make a way to let the boats float by."
Moreover, the appearance of the lake changes as the crowd moves. He
quotes a couplet, "Seeing all the decorated boats pass the Xiling
Bridge 西泠橋 (Xilingqiao)/ Half of the lake quietly yields to the beauty
of spring." (331) The crowd does not seem to bother him. Quite
the contrary, for Zhou, the crowd is an indispensable constituent
of the whole spectacle of the lake.
Wu Zimu resonates with Zhou's sensibility. One example will be sufficient.
Zimu describes the progress of a boat race on the eighth day of second
month, part of the worship of a hill god whose birthday is three days
later. He reports the colors, the sounds, and the shapes. Nothing
is left out. As for the people on land, he describes them as "walking
back and forth on the Dike of Su Shi, swarming like ants." He
continues to explain that it is a common occurrence that Hangzhou
people, whether poor or rich, go on outings in spring. (7-8) However,
outings are not exclusively limited to spring, since each season has
its unique splendor, as he stresses in a chapter dedicated to West
Lake. (106) People approached the lake not only for sight-seeing.
Religious or cultural events can serve as the incentive as well. Wu
is so sophisticated about the multiplicity of reasons that he uses
"custom" (風俗) as a term to indicate the outcome of the interaction
between the multiple factors that collaboratively form the crowd.
(8) The size of the crowd may vary from time to time, but there is
no way to erase it from the landscape. Moreover, his interest in custom
allows him to include in his book many human activities and products.
In a chapter on lake boats, he describes all the types of boats for
various purposes. Among the others, commercial service boats staffed
with people to provide entertainment, food, and beverages, plied the
lake. Profit intertwined with other motives to attract many kinds
of human activities into the area. Commercial activity not only increased
the complexity of the crowd, but also the richness of the landscape.
(110-111) The idea that the diversity of the crowd enhances the attractiveness
of the lake is clear in Zhou Mi's descriptions of the lake, though
he does not explicitly use the term "custom." (330) [translation
of the part on lake boat]
Finally, the attitudes of Wu Zimu and Zhou Mi toward the buildings
in the West Lake area are very interesting. Generally speaking, Wu
and Zhou both consider buildings to be interesting spots to visit.
However, some of the buildings recorded in their books had completely
decayed years earlier, leaving no remnants. Wu explained why he still
writes of them, "They [the buildings] are…traces of past worthies,
so they cannot be forgotten. All my efforts are devoted to keeping
the buildings remembered. Collecting their names in my book is the
way I achieve this goal." (106) In a similar vein, Zhou records
more than 400 buildings in the fifth scroll of his book, whether or
not they still existed. About 130 buildings are listed without any
information except their names. The rest are described in a few words
each, usually only a mention of their alternative names or the names
of their past owners. Information on date of construction, restoration,
rebuilding, or ruin is not always provided, despite the fact that
most of the changes were probably initiated by Worthies. (Worthies
were respected persons notable for their virtues or political achievements.)
Neither are locations of the buildings always given. Locations were
referenced to the geographical structure of West Lake area, which
was considered to consist of five lines of mountains, two dikes, one
valley, two peaks, and one cluster of hills. (351-366) Neither author
invested much effort to include the literary creations inspired by
the buildings, even though they would have been the products of worthies'
activities. Zhou, as well as Wu, seems to think that the name itself
is sufficient to preserve the memory of already absent buildings,
and that the memory so preserved needs not to claim any span of time,
or any extent of space. [sample section]
The attribution of such vital significance to name in keeping memory
could perhaps be explained by the times in which these books were
published. The Past as Dream was published no earlier than 1274, only
two years before the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty. The Mongolian
threat was already fully felt. Hangzhou was lost to the Mongols years
before the publication of Old Affairs of Wulin. The sense of loss
in the book is severe. Less than one and half centuries earlier, the
Northern Song Dynasty lost north China to the Jurchens. That event
meant the loss of access to and the destruction of familiar environments,
including buildings. Buildings cannot be carried around. Wu Zimu and
Zhou Mi saw the possibilities that Song people could rebuild elsewhere
dramatically decrease, if not disappear. The loss seemed likely to
be forever. Under these circumstances, locations and descriptions
become unreliable, like dreams or past events, difficult to revisit
or verify. What can always survive without doubt? Perhaps, only the
names. Wu and Zhou did not necessarily intend to exclude other elements
from their books. As long as names acquire their textual presence,
memory stands. Monuments made only of names serve as sufficient markers
in the landscape of memory, though other materials can still be added.
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Experiencing the West Lake
